US Airways April traffic falls 2 percent on lower capacity

TEMPE, Ariz.—US Airways Group Inc. said Monday its traffic declined 2 percent in April as the carrier shed capacity in the U.S. and Latin America.

The airline said April traffic fell to 5.14 billion revenue passenger miles from 5.25 billion in the same month a year earlier. A revenue passenger mile is an industry unit measuring one paying passenger flown one mile.

US Airways cut capacity by 2.6 percent to 6.18 billion available seat miles from 6.34 billion.

Domestic capacity dropped 6.3 percent in April, contributing to a 5.4 percent decline in domestic traffic. Traffic on trans-Atlantic flights jumped 23.9 percent to 617 million revenue passenger miles as US Airways hiked capacity on the routes by 26.6 percent.

U.S. carriers have been shifting an increasing amount of capacity to international destinations because there is less competition on overseas routes.

US Airways' total load factor, a measure of occupancy, fell by half a percentage point to 83.2 percent.

For the first four months of the year, US Airways said overall traffic dipped 0.2 percent to 19.63 billion revenue passenger miles. Capacity during the period fell 1.6 percent to 24.51 billion available seat miles, while occupancy rose 1.1 percentage points to 80.1 percent.

US Airways shares fell 40 cents, or 4.6 percent, to $8.32 during the regular session.